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Exhibit at Ontario Science Centre collects kids' spit

Spitting in public usually isn't encouraged, but kids at the Ontario Science Centre are being asked to do just that – all for the sake of science.

Keegan McCabe, 8-years-old from Bradford, Ont., looks at his spittle in a tube Tuesday July 7, 2009, in Toronto. Spitting in public usually isn't encouraged, but kids at the Ontario Science Centre are being asked to do just that - all for the sake of science. (PATRICK DELL / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Tues., July 7, 2009

Researchers from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children are asking young visitors to the popular educational centre to donate their saliva for DNA analysis and to take part in a computer game that tests their impulse control.

Called “Spit for Science,” the $1.3-million research program is aimed at finding the genetic underpinnings of two behavioural conditions that affect between three and five per cent of school-aged children and teens.

“We’re trying to learn more about the genes that are involved in two very common childhood psychiatric disorders — attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, usually known as ADHD, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD as it’s often called,” said Sick Kids psychiatrist Dr. Russell Schachar.

“And we’re doing that not by studying children or teens with the disorders, but by studying the traits that are associated with the conditions,” Schachar said Tuesday at the Science Centre.

The researchers hope to collect saliva and behavioural data from 10,000 young people aged seven to 17 by the end of the summer.

Before firing their spit into individual collection tubes, participating children play a computer game that measures their reaction time as a means of determining impulse control. Meanwhile, parents or guardians fill out a questionnaire about the child’s behavioural traits.

“Then we’re going to take DNA from the sputum, the spit ... and find the 1,000 children with the highest levels of those traits and the 1,000 children with the lowest levels and we’re going to do a genome-wide scan, comparing their genomes,” said Schachar.

The researchers will then look for any genetic “hot spots” linked to certain behavioural traits and see if they can be matched with patients who have been diagnosed with either ADHD or OCD.

“Once we’ve done that, we believe we’ll have very solid clues about what genes may be playing a role,” said Schachar, noting that the researchers hope to have the DNA analysis completed and preliminary findings ready by the beginning of next year.

“Obviously the long-term goal is to find the causes and cures for these very common, costly, impairing conditions that really make life very difficult for quite a few children and their families.”

Twelve-year-old Naomi Zoelman of Newcastle, Ont., just east of Toronto, said she decided to take part because she likes science and ``it looked like fun, so I might as well just try it.”

The spitting part wasn’t as easy as she first thought, though: it took her “like 15” times of working up enough saliva in her mouth and shooting it into the collection tube to provide the required sample.

“It was so hard because after a while your mouth starts to get dry,” she said.

Her friend Olivia Costello, another 12-year-old from Newcastle, called the “Spit for Science” project “really cool and a good idea to get everyone from the Science Centre because there’s different types of people.”

And both girls found it “really cool actually” to be part of science in the making.

“It’s a win-win-win situation,” agreed Sara Poirier a researcher-programmer at the Science Centre. “Researchers have access to diverse pools of participants, while members of the public have the chance to contribute to the advancement of science and learn about genes and behaviour.”

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